Bali volcano spewing fumes with more vigour

KARANGASEM (Bali) • A rumbling volcano on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali is spewing steam and sulphurous fumes with more intensity, heightening fears of an eruption as officials said the number of evacuees had topped 144,000.

Mount Agung, 75km from the resort hub of Kuta, has been shaking since last month and threatening to erupt for the first time since 1963 - a potential blow to the island's lucrative tourism industry. The last eruption killed nearly 1,600 people.

The Indonesian Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said yesterday that remote satellite sensing had picked up new steam emissions and thermal areas within the crater.

The Straits Times

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